Cauterets June 2024

 













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Head-Spinning Choices

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 Dear friends, Trep-ticipidation about these three months abroad entailed the possibility of physical risks (injury, assault/theft), but I am over that and keeping a bit vigilant. I knew I would not feel lonely because I reach out for meeting new and old friends when I am traveling solo,  and I have companionship for some part of the next 4 days.  What surprises me now that I am here in Paris is an intimidating number of things I could do; I'm feeling a bit paralyzed about which to choose.  But I do like being spontaneous, so I'll let go of that worry right now. April 30:   RER B and Metro Line1  to my lodging place near St. Paul-St. Louis Church, in the Marais. Once unpacked, I walked to an excellent vegan bakery in the Quartier Latin beyond the Île de la Cité. Here is my view from breakfast May 1.  The painting partially seen in the mirror is by Rod Stein, my in-law family connection in Paris, and a wonderful host he is. May 1, Global Workers' D...
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Day one--Arriving Bleary--April 30, 2024!

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  After navigating the cattle call of airport customs (self-scanning passport in optical reader for entry into France, then seeing a grainy realtime B/W video of my face taken to allow advancing to perfunctory stamping by a human of a blank page in my passport, I found my checked bag and then took a long long stroll within a crowd from all over the world, some pushing carts of huge amounts of baggage, toward RER train ticketing, up and down escalators, ever wary of theives (none apparently that day).   The sky was "bas et lourd comme un couvercle" to quote Baudelaire in  Spleen,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQaRSpbBh2E )--and while his poem describes depression, I was jubilant despite the dim heavily overcast list of the morning. Selfie on Île de la Cité with newly purchased scarf attempting to look a bit more local.
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A Few Arts and Artists Seen around France

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At Louis Vuitton Foundation, was privileged to see this MoMA-owned work (The Red Studio, l'Atelier rouge...) as well as most ot the items Matisse painted within the work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtGiFwAX9q0&list=TLGGquesD7FdOsIyNDA1MjAyNA&t=12s   At Picasso Museum I saw this work of Henri Matisse Marguerite Emilienne Matisse (1894–1982) was the artist’s eldest child, the daughter of his girlfriend and model, Camille Joblaud. Plagued with ill health, Marguerite was only six years old when she developed acute breathing problems that necessitated an emergency tracheotomy.  In the two paintings Matisse created of her, she wears a black neck ribbon to hide her scar. (source  https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/492736#:~:text=Marguerite%20Emilienne%20Matisse%20(1894%E2%80%931982,that%20necessitated%20an%20emergency%20tracheotomy. ) At the Musée de la vie romantique, a special exhibit on the painter Géricault revealed his interest in horses as they we...
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